A MATLAB Christmas card

====Couldn’t resist posting it
The guys at Blinkdagger put together a great MATLAB Christmas card for you all and sent it in to me as part of the Walking Randomly Christmas challenge.  I would have posted it earlier but I have been away from the Internet over Christmas (sorry Rob). Thanks guys!

A brief explanation of the maths involved (from Rob of Blinkdagger)
- the snowdrifts are sine waves of different amplitudes and offsets
- the tree is a 3D spiral of green asterisks
- the ornaments are a random selection of the same points as the tree,
with different colors and marker types
- the presents under the tree are the trademark “membrane” surface that is the MATLAB logo.
- the star atop the tree, as well as the star in the sky are just single points graphed, but using the default marker types creatively
- the text is, well it’s just text


% Xmas card from blinkdagger.com for the challenge

%% setup the fig
h1 = figure(’Position’,[50 50 800 600],’Color’,’w’);

%% Put background snowdrifts and star
axes(’Position’,[0 0.5 1 .05]);
ezplot(’sin(.1*x+1.8)’); axis off; title(”);

axes(’Position’,[0 0.4 1 .1]);
ezplot(’sin(.3*x)’); axis off; title(”);

axes(’Position’,[0 0.25 1 .1]);
ezplot(’sin(.4*x-1.5)’); axis off; title(”);

axes(’Position’,[0 0.1 1 .15]);
ezplot(’cos(.4*x-2)’); axis off; title(”);

axes(’Position’,[0.75 0.75 0.2 0.2]);
plot(1,1,’x’,’markersize’,48,’markeredgecolor’,[.5 .5 .5]);
axis off; title(”); hold on;
plot(1,1,’h’,’markersize’,36,’markeredgecolor’,[.5 .5 .5]);
plot(1,1,’+’,’markersize’,80,’markeredgecolor’,[.5 .5 .5]);
hold off;

%% Put tree on and decorate it

axes(’Position’,[0.55 0.2 0.4 0.6]);
z = 0:.05:100;
x = cos(z); x = (101-z).*x;
y = sin(z); y = (101-z).*y;
plot3(x,y,z,’g*’,’markersize’,18); axis off; view(0,10);
hold all;
% star on top
plot3(0,0,107,’p’,’markersize’,24,’markerfacecolor’,[1 .8431 0],…
‘markeredgecolor’,’r’);
% plot ornaments
k = rand(size(x));
k1 = k>.97;
k2 = k>.94 & k<.97;
k3 = k>.91 & k<.94;
k4 = k>.88 & k<.91;
k5 = k>.85 & k<.88;
k6 = k>.82 & k<.85;
plot3(x(k1),y(k1),z(k1),’ro’,’markersize’,8,’linewidth’,2); axis off; view(0,10);
plot3(x(k2),y(k2),z(k2),’ys’,’markersize’,8,’linewidth’,2); axis off; view(0,10);
plot3(x(k3),y(k3),z(k3),’md’,’markersize’,8,’linewidth’,2); axis off; view(0,10);
plot3(x(k4),y(k4),z(k4),’b^’,’markersize’,8,’linewidth’,2); axis off; view(0,10);
plot3(x(k5),y(k5),z(k5),’kh’,’markersize’,8,’linewidth’,2); axis off; view(0,10);
plot3(x(k6),y(k6),z(k6),’c*’,’markersize’,8,’linewidth’,2); axis off; view(0,10);

hold off;

%% Put presents under the tree
axes(’Position’,[0.5 0.12 0.1 0.15]);
colormap(hot*.7); surf(membrane,membrane); shading flat; axis off; view(300,20);
axes(’Position’,[0.57 0.1 0.1 0.15]);
surf(membrane); shading flat; axis off; view(300,20);
axes(’Position’,[0.63 0.08 0.1 0.15]);
surf(membrane); shading flat; axis off; view(300,20);
axes(’Position’,[0.7 0.08 0.1 0.15]);
surf(membrane); shading flat; axis off; view(300,20);
axes(’Position’,[0.77 0.1 0.1 0.15]);
surf(membrane); shading flat; axis off; view(300,20);
axes(’Position’,[0.83 0.13 0.1 0.15]);
surf(membrane); shading flat; axis off; view(300,20);

%% Overlay snowflakes

%% Text greeting

axes(’Position’,[.05 .6 .5 .5]); axis off;
text(.08,.55,’Seasons Greetings!’,’fontsize’,30,’color’,’r’,…
‘fontname’,’Garamond’,’fontweight’,’bold’);
text(.07,.31,’Best wishes and have a great 2009′,’fontsize’,20,…
‘color’,[0 .4 0],’fontname’,’Garamond’);
text(.07,.18,’solving problems with MATLAB!’,’fontsize’,20,…
‘color’,[0 .4 0],’fontname’,’Garamond’);
text(.07,.05,’From everyone at blinkdagger.com!’,’fontsize’,20,…
‘color’,[0 .4 0],’fontname’,’Garamond’);

What do enginners dread most?

Resonance!!

Just the name of it can cause mayhem in the life of an Engineer. For the non-technically oriented readers resonance refers to the degree to which a person and the environment mutually effect each other and build upon each other’s responses. Engineers will happily replace the person and the environment above with the systems and the working conditions(ain’t it also environment?), well who cares unless i made my point sink in.

While a design in under review the engineer keeps biting his nails, with the other hand’s fingers crossed and praying to god with grave faith that the inspector doesn’t come across any resonance he so very smartly covered up in the report submission. Engineers are so very afraid of things being in resonance that they totally leave out the possibility of such thing in real life. Ring any bells!? Better the breed of engineer, the more he is devastated by the thought of resonance. Does that explain something about the “geeks”. I can presume that you have read more than necessary literature about geeks being bad in socializing, hey but aren’t they getting trained to be so

PS: I have spend last two weeks design a vibration model of a anchoring system for deep water oil rigs and failed miserably until last Friday when i defeated resonance .

Fossconf presentation: Hashstyling and prelinks

I recently gave a talk on Horse powering your linux system at the fossconf in chennai.It was supposed to be 30min lecture, but i was late for the lecture owing to my lack of knowledge of the chennai city.I mis located the venue of the conference, and thanks to a student of the anna univ or i would have done it the second time too.When i reached there, i lost most of my audience ( it was advanced level lecture, their geeky ego got hurt ). So by the time i started , most of the guys were newbies and enthusiasts.It became a drill in place of lecture.Everything was like a bolt from the blue.I had to explain eveything, right from scratch, and some of them really made me scratch my dandruff .

Anyway here are the sildes, enjoy.

Phew!! Finally a rock solid kernel on the way…. yeh it’s a weasel

“Ok, this kernel is a winner,” began Linux creator Linus Torvalds, playfully announcing the 2.6.25-rc2 kernel which gained the name “Funky Weasel is Jiggy wit it“. He continued:

“Just to show how _much_ of a winner it is, it’s been awarded a coveted ‘weasel’ series name, which should tell you just how good it’s going to be. It’s a name revered in Linux kernel history, and as such this brings back the good old days where if you find a bug, you’re almost certainly simply mistaken, and you probably just did something wrong. But hey, you can try to prove me wrong. I dare you.”

Linus went on to describe some of the changes using ‘git dirstat‘, “in particular, it shows that almost exactly half of the updates are to drivers, with network drivers alone being a third of the whole patch. And of the remaining half, about half was architecture updates, notably to SH.” He then noted, “I’m optimistic that this release cycle won’t be anywhere near the pain of what 24 was, which is why I’m just going to go off for the long weekend and stay at the beach.“

Courtesy:kerneltrap.org

Back in the Arena…

Quizzse make you do random and do not do at any cost type of things.It can be whatever blah , shit etc for you, for me it’s going back to gentoo.In case you don’t know what gentoo is , the small image is enough to explain, don’t get it? CLICK the image.Still no clue, then better use the cross in red box on the right top corner of your browser window, it will save you n00bies some ‘faltu’ time.

It’s been months since last time i was on gentoo.But why do one have to leave Gentoo on the first place?depends. In my case it was overkill of time while compiling a custom gentoo build.I had to do some typical mugging etc. to get my cgpa in the all respectable range of 8.0+, and lot of design work which can only be done in windows.During the time i spent on gentoo, i developed into a big freak. At times i never used to have a clue of which slot of the day( night included ) i am working in.

I explained the problem to senior nerds/geeks of the insti namely Ch!tt0r and mOturi.Both of them had only one advice.Do not waste time in third year.Anyway i wasn’t doing anything specific in linux which can’t be done in windows.All i had was a small piece of software which was to be ported to .NET anyway.So i dumoped a custom compiled gentoo! I didn’t even create an image of the installation, as that would have compelled me again and again to have some fun.

But now this sem arrived with anything but studies.outcome of which is ‘fulltoo’ free time.I can overkill.There are some tasks also to complete, which you will come to know in the subsequent posts.

And something weird happened? After the installation i wasn’t happy with the look and feel of KDE-3.5.6. I tried lot of styles etc. put a full Kore Mod, but still i was pained.It looked sick.The reason was the crystalXP theme i was using on windows.It’s SEXY.I had to do something. Luck prevailed for once and i logged into gnome, just to check it out.I had never used gnome before.It was faster and looked more solid than KDE. But It never appealed to my eyes, until i saw some screenshots shared by a l33t and they were smooth and appealing( read SEXY).There i was; MOD max for last three days.I tried almost all the themes in gnome.Finally settled with the black theme; again thanks to Vista inspirat2.1.

That’s it!!!Keep watching the space for few more screenshots.I am trying to embed a google presentation , but wordpress doesn’t support it.

Orkut Spam!! Stop filling my scrapbook.

Saw some of those in your scrapbook.I guess if you have followed the steps in the mail, expecting to see some magic.

I am sure 9/10 times it’s only your friends who see the magic.The script copies itself to all of your friends scrapbook.

For heaven’s sake, next time you get such scraps paste them in google, not URL.

You will save everyone a lot of trouble.

And if any google guy is reading this post.

PLEASE STOP THIS NONSENSE.

In Defense of Geeks or Ten Reasons Why You Should Date a Geek

I was going through the scobleizer blog today.I found the link to this poston his girlfriend mary’s blog.It’s too much.Go geeks.

here is how mary goes:

About a year ago I appeared along with my loving geeky husband at the Chris Pirillo Show and stated my reasons why ladies should consider dating a geek. A week ago, Brian Bailey emailed me and kindly asked me to write a post on ten best things about being married to a geek.

Now, I don’t praise Robert on this blog too much, because A, his head would get too big and it would be hard to live with him under one roof and B, I don’t think it is very amusing or interesting when couples say mushy stuff about each other. Happy couples make me sick. Akh, gross, gag me with a spoon.

But I feel after three months of picking on him on this blog, I owe him one nice post and truth be told, I do love the guy. I am crazy about that goofball. Shhhhhh, don’t tell him I said that. So ladies, here are ten best things about being married to a geek:

1. He can fix your computer. There I said it. Do you really need another reason? He is not a bum. He has useful skills that can make your life (at least the part that is spent on the computer, and let’s face it, that is where we all spent most of our time any way) run smooth. Not enough? OK, here’s number two.
2. He has friends who can fix your computer. So now you are in a relationship and he knows he’s got you and doesn’t feel like he needs to jump every time you call. All of a sudden he is too busy for you? He has work to do and can’t get there fast enough? No problem. Call one of his buddies. They’d love to help out. Geeks are the most helpful friends you’d ever make .
3. Not a computer person? OK, here’s the killer. He can also hook up the TV, connect the DVD player and Tivo your favorite programs. He’ll also hook you up with the sweetest sound system you’ve ever heard. It would be like angels singing to you.
4. Looking further for another reason? Yes, you guessed it. He has friends who can hook up the TV, connect the DVD player, etc. etc. etc.
5. And it gets better: Not only can he fix your computer and DVD player, he can do the same for your friends. All of a sudden your social life will pick up. Your phone won’t stop ringing. Dinner invitations come up every night of the week. You’d be as popular as if you owned a truck and you don’t even have to help anyone move.
6. Sigh…you really want more reasons to date a geek? Fine. Here’s one for your vanity. He’ll make you shine every where you go. No matter how clumsy your sense of style, no matter how awkward your social skills, you’ll be a fashion star and a classy diplomat next to your geek. He’ll make you look so good; you’ll fall in love with yourself.
7. So you are not into computers, TVs and DVDs and you don’t care about being popular and fashionable. What about the newest techie gadgets? Do you like cell. phones, digital cameras, camcorders, or MP3 players? Forget bling bling. Let me tell you girlfriend, you are going to be a proud owner of the latest gadgets if you ever decide to date a geek. Your cell. phone will not only have your best friends’ number on speed dial, it would also be able to take pictures, make movies and even do your nails. Your sleek, sexy, and very small digital camera will take pictures that will put Ansel Adams to shame and your brand new, top of the line MP3 player will make all the heads turn your way.
8. Not satisfied yet? Ok, I hear you. You are saying gadgets and toys are fun, but they won’t keep me warm in the middle of the night, if you know what I mean. Well, I didn’t think I would have to tell you this, but I guess you are going to make me spell it out for you. Here’s the deal, sweet and simple: Your geek will worship the ground you walk on. He’ll be so happy that a pretty girl like you paid attention to him that he’ll be at your feet. He’ll adore you as if you were his queen. In his arms, you’ll feel like you are at the top of the world. Believe me, I know what I am talking about.
9. I know I got your attention now, but wait it gets better. He won’t cheat on you either. You don’t believe me? Here’s a test. Place the sexiest woman on earth in a room with a geek, say Angelina Jolie in a Victoria Secret sexy lingerie. At the other corner of the room, place the latest model of some computer or other. I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that your geek would want to play with that computer much more than getting to know Angelina Jolie. In fact, he might not even see her if the computer is on and connected to the Internet. C’mmon he has to check his email, surf the web and blog about the fact that he is in a room with Angelina Jolie
10. Ok, reason number ten. Did I mention he can fix your computer???

Duck your heads: Google maps on the roll…

This is a video from the funny video group on youtube “the vacationeers“. They are demonstrating an on demand feature of Google maps street view.These guys are just too good.

Thought the above video was against the copyrights and blah blah…

well here is another one.This one is really a great video.The coolest feature of Google maps is it’s trip planning & it just got a whole lot better.So next time your feet are itchy, make sure you have the right directions.And ya, the feature works for Chennai too.So if the autowala bitches with you next time, tell him to keep his mouth shut.

Go larry, Go sergey…

My first GIMP creation ( Concept:picasa :P )

This is a creation with which i started my gimp 101 course.I saw such effects in picasa, and set out to do it myself in gimp and not photoshop. Photoshop is just tooooo bulky to get my admiration. I like softies lite, and by no means i will need any photoshop features which GIMP doesn’t support.

Some tips on layers and few transparency effects were good for a start.

but the effect produced was not pleasing enough.The background image was coming too strong on the front “think linux” layer.

So i tried i few blur types and then got the finish i wanted.But still something was not quite right, i generally tried the hue and sauturations and then the B/W just set the themes right.

Here is the high resolution wall for your download.

Plz use this link, rapidshare:

Life in layers

And for unfortunate IIT Souls:

Life in layers

I declare it GPL.

A great opportunity missed :(

Last two days have been awesome for my blog page.I shared this icon set called hula collection on kde-look and it literally overflowed my blog with hits.I received 800+ hits in the last 24 hours.I was happy as never before. I received mails of icon pack developers and lot others praising the collection.Then what have i missed?

I missed a free rapidshare premium account!!!

how?

well partly due to bad luck and partly due to ignorance.I uploaded 2 files on mihd.net. Each have been downloaded over 800 times and still counting.That makes it 1600+ downloads. In rapidshare you get a point everytime your file is downloaded.For 3000 points you get a free premium account for 3 months. That would have been enough for all insti-lan requirements.well i knew that policy beforehand.so, that’s ignorance.

You all can curse me if you want to, but it happened.But, i think i can still make it.I have changed the links to rapidshare and already collected 100 points in 2hrs. I have some more mouth licking iconsets in store. so keep your fingers crossed.